Dates:  1835-1888; 1893; 1895; 1931; 1953; n.d.

Biography:

William T. Walthall

William T. Walthall, son of Henry and Elizabeth Jones Walthall, was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, on July 2, 1820. He worked as a professor of mathematics in the United States Navy from 1842 to 1843, and he was also educated for the bar but never practiced law.

Walthall married Mary Brooks Dorr, daughter of Ebenezer and Sarah Allen Brooks of Pensacola, Florida, on January 27, 1849. He entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as a member of the Southern Foresters, a company of Mobile, Alabama, volunteers that was organized by Walthall. The company was merged with the Twelfth Regiment, Alabama Infantry, in which Walthall served as a captain until July 1861, when he was commissioned as a major and assistant adjutant general on the general staff of the Confederate Army. Walthall married his late wife's sister, Anna Worcester Dorr, on September 27, 1863.

Following the Civil War, Walthall worked as associate editor of the Mobile Register. In 1870, he worked as an agent for the Carolina Life Insurance Company, of which Jefferson Davis was president. Walthall left his position as editor and part owner of the Mobile Cycle in 1876 to assist Jefferson Davis with the manuscript of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government that was published in 1881.

From 1888 to 1891, Walthall served as United States consul in Demerara, British Guiana. Walthall returned to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he lived until his death on May 15, 1899.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection contains correspondence, diary extracts, and other papers related to William T. Walthall. There are also documents related to Walthall's work as United States consul to British Guiana. The collection also contains four unidentified photographs.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Papers. 1835-1888; 1893; 1895; 1931; 1953; n.d. 4 folders.

Series 2: Photographs. n.d. 1 folder.